Researcher uncovers hundreds of women who died in wartime service

Hundreds of women died while performing wartime duties between 1939 and 1945, and their contribution has received little attention, doctoral researcher Pauliina Ylitalo says in an article published by Yle. She has found 403 women in a National Archives database, but says the final number will not be known until her research is completed in autumn 2027.

Women served in support and staff roles, air surveillance, hospitals, military canteens and on the home front. After the Lotta Svärd organisation was dissolved in autumn 1944 under the peace agreement between Finland and the Soviet Union, many women had to remain silent about their work in national defence, Ylitalo says.

Ylitalo says women’s contribution has often been measured by how many men their work freed for the front, rather than by its significance to Finland’s independence. “The story is not complete unless women are also brought into view,” she says.

Some women who died in wartime duties were buried in military cemeteries. Two lotta members, Virpi Viita and Ellen Latva-Kokko, are buried at the military cemetery in Seinäjoki. Ylitalo says many people have not noticed the women among the graves or know who they were and how they died.

Ylitalo identified 403 women in a National Archives database covering people who died in Finland’s wars from 1939 to 1945. The database contains records for more than 90,000 people. She also reviewed 47 folders of handwritten cards in the Defence Command’s fallen soldiers’ index.

The women died in a range of roles, including nursing, clerical work, cooking and cleaning. Ylitalo says their number is small compared with that of men, but significant because women volunteered for their duties while men were generally assigned to theirs.

Viita, a lotta from Seinäjoki, was 19 when she was killed at her workplace in East Karelia on 18 October 1943. She had spent most of her service as an office worker at a military hospital. After working for a month at a regional headquarters in the Äänisniemi area, she was shot in the chest when a group of about 20 partisans attacked. Her funeral with military honours was held in Seinäjoki on 31 October 1943.